Earthbound series re-release of some kind teased

The classic RPG series known as Earthbound or Mother seems to be in for a revival, if not a sequel.

Word of the possible remake comes courtesy of series writer and designer Shigesato Itoi on Twitter, as translated by Earthbound Central.

“Snce it’s now okay to blurt this out, here goes: the Mother republication thing I mentioned briefly before is making progress,” he said.

“It’s not [Mother] 4, though! This has to do with making Mother playable. I can’t give out any details just yet, but I do at least need to say that it isn’t 4.”

Itoi is apparently referring to the whole series when he says he intends to ‘make Mother playable’. His comments strongly suggest a re-make or re-release is on the cards at last for at least one of the Mother games, if not the whole series.

For those who aren’t quite au fait, Mother is a series of three RPGS. The first was released for NES in Japan in 1989, but a planned localisation never happened. Mother 2 made it to SNES in Japan in 1994, and released in the US as Earthbound in 1995. The third entry, Mother 3, arrived in Japan only 2006, for Game Boy Advance.

Because of its unusual themes, sense of humour and originality, Earthbound is considered one of the SNES’s greatest RPGs, if not one of the best of all time. The other two games are much more obscure but equally adored by aficionados, and the fact that the series has gone neglected in terms of re-releases and sequels is a sore point with fans. It’s actually quite difficult to acquire legitimate copies of any of the three games, although fans have made ROMs available and even provided translations.